HP&DH Part 2 Movie Review - SPOILERS ABOUND!

[Phyllis]

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Do we have new canon – was Snape at the Potter's house at
Godric's Hollow the night of Voldemort's attack?!?  Does this
explain how Voldemort got his wand back?  Although if Snape was upset by
Lily's death, perhaps he wouldn't have wanted to retrieve
Voldemort's wand?  Lots to ponder here.

My biggest gripe is the way in which the final confrontation between
Harry and Voldemort was changed.  It just went on and on – it was so
ridiculous at points (when they were both falling through the air, when
Voldemort had Harry bound but didn't do anything to him, when they
were fighting like wand-less Muggles rather than wizards) that all of
the suspense and anticipation were lost for me.  We also lost Harry
giving Voldemort the opportunity for redemption.  And then at the end,
we don't hear the spells that either are saying, so the significance
of Harry using "expelliarmus" rather than an unforgiveable
curse, the Elder Wand returning to its proper master when it was
summoned and the fact that Voldemort was killed by his own rebounding
death curse were lost.

I know the bit about Lily's sacrifice enabling Harry to come back
from the dead is complicated (I'm still not sure I completely get
it, to be honest), but leaving it out left questions about why exactly
Harry was able to come back from the dead.  The "board a train and
go 
 on" bit was supposed to refer to the option that didn't
involve Harry returning to the battle.

The confrontation between Neville and Voldemort left a lot to be desired
– Neville pulls out the sword but doesn't do anything with it
right away?  And we lost Neville refusing to ever become a Death Eater,
and the fact that none of the Death Eater's curses would work
because of the protection from Harry's self-sacrifice.

They left out most, but not all, of the Dumbledore backstory, which
resulted in confusion about the significance of Ariana and the root
cause of Aberforth's anger, and didn't explain how Dumbledore
became injured by using the resurrection stone to try to bring his
family back.  Also, we lost the whole theme of Harry being the better
man and being master of death by not wanting to unite the hallows.  And
why leave out Harry using the Elder Wand to repair his own wand?

I thought the Gringotts scene was brilliant, although why leave out that
the multiplying treasure was hot?  Also, there was no explanation of how
Harry knew that the horcrux in the vault was Hufflepuff's cup
(although I suppose they were trying to solve that by the fact that
Harry could "hear" the horcruxes – that didn't really
work for me).  Hermione's unconvincing attempt to pose as Bellatrix
was terrific.

They didn't explain that Griphook wanted the sword so badly because
he thought the sword was the property of the goblins because it was
goblin-made.  And why would Griphook ever be in Voldemort's presence
– without Voldemort noticing that he's holding the sword of
Griffindor?

Ollivander says that he told Voldemort where to find the Elder Wand, but
in the first part of the DH movie, Grindlewald tells Voldemort where to
find the Elder Wand.  If the movie makers just stuck to the books, they
wouldn't confuse themselves.

Seeing Fred lying dead wasn't the same as watching the blast that
killed him – also, there wasn't any way to tell which twin it
was who was lying dead.  The lack of feeling at Fred's death was
compounded by the almost complete lack of screen time both twins had in
this movie.

Percy shows up without any explanation – huh?

When Harry brings back his mother and father, Lupin and Sirus to help
him with his self-sacrifice, he asks them to stay with him, but then he
drops the stone right away and they disappear immediately.  Huh?

I actually enjoyed being able to see Ron and Hermione destroy the
horcrux in the Chamber of Secrets, and I thought that was done well,
although it still doesn't work for me that Ron could open the
Chamber using parseltongue (that's an issue I have with the book,
though).

It was confusing to see Luna, dressed in Muggle clothes, in the Room of
Requirement before all of the rest of the Order showed up.

Having Harry say goodbye to Hermione didn't work for me – he
hugs her but not Ron?  And Hermione knew all along that Harry was a
horcrux and never told him?

The Snape death scene was very well done, although Harry looks sad to
see Snape dying, which doesn't comport with Harry's hatred of
Snape.

Hagrid shows up bound in the Forbidden Forest, but we have no idea how
he got there.  I missed seeing him being carted off by an acromantula
and hearing "Accio Hagrid!"

Loved Professor McGonagall's joy at bringing the statues to life and
the duel between her and Snape was very well done.  But why not include
Professor Trelawney throwing orbs or Professor Sprout's use of
vegetation?  The shield charm around the castle was terrific.

Why did we have to suffer through Grawp in the fifth movie if they
weren't going to bring him back for the battle of the giants in this
movie?

Why even mention the Carrows if they don't get any screen time?

Molly killing Bellatrix was terrific – and they kept in "You
b*tch"!  Good for them.

The epilogue actually worked OK – I thought they did a good job of
aging the characters, although I missed hearing that Neville became
Hogwarts' herbology professor, and I thought they missed a key point
by leaving out having everyone gawping at Harry.

~Phyllis




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